DNA polymerases are relied upon by all organisms to replicate and maintain their genomes. They allow high fidelity replication of DNA by detecting complementarity between bases as well as recognising additional structural features of the base.
Three main super families of DNA polymerase exist, based upon their amino acid similarity to E. Coli DNA polymerases I, II and III. They are called Family A, B and C polymerases respectively. Whilst crystallographic analysis of Family A and B polymerases reveals a common structural core for the nucleotide binding site, sequence motifs that are well conserved within families are only weakly conserved between families, and there are significant differences in the way these polymerases discriminate between nucleotide analogues.
Early experiments with DNA polymerases revealed difficulties incorporating modified nucleotides such as dideoxynucleotides (ddNTPs). There are, therefore, several examples in which DNA polymerases have been modified to increase the rates of incorporation of nucleotide analogues. The majority of these have focused on variants of Family A polymerases (eg. Taq) with the aim of increasing the incorporation of dideoxynucleotide chain terminators.
For example Tabor, S. and Richardson, C. C. (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci (USA) 92:6339 describe the replacement of phenylalanine 667 with tyrosine in T. aquaticus DNA polymerase and the effects this has on discrimination of dideoxynucleotides by the DNA polymerase.
In order to increase the efficiency of incorporation of modified nucleotides, DNA polymerases have been utilised or engineered such that they lack 3′-5′ exonuclease activity (designated exo-). The exo-variant of 9° N polymerase is described by Perler et al., 1998 U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,334 and by Southworth et al., 1996 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci USA 93:5281.
Gardner A. F. and Jack W. E. (Determinants of nucleotide sugar recognition in an archaeon DNA polymerase Nucl. Acids Res. 27:2545, 1999) describe mutations in Vent DNA polymerase that enhance the incorporation of ribo-, 2′ and 3′deoxyribo- and 2′3′-dideoxy-ribonucleotides. The two individual mutations in Vent polymerase, Y412V and A488L, enhanced the relative activity of the enzyme with the nucleotide ATP. In addition, other substitutions at Y412 and A488 also increased ribonucleotide incorporation, though to a lesser degree. It was concluded that the bulk of the amino acid side chain at residue 412 acts as a “steric gate” to block access of the 2′-hydroxyl of the ribonucleotide sugar to the binding site. However, the rate enhancement with cordycepin (3′deoxy adenosine triphosphate) was only 2-fold, suggesting that the Y412V polymerase variant was also sensitive to the loss of the 3′sugar hydroxyl. For residue A488, the change in activity is less easily rationalized. A488 is predicted to point away from the nucleotide binding site; here the enhancement in activity was explained through a change to the activation energy required for the enzymatic reaction. These mutations in Vent correspond to Y409 and A485 in 9° N polymerase.
The universality of the A488L mutation has been confirmed by homologous mutations in the following hyperthermophilic polymerases:    1) A486Y variant of Pfu DNA polymerase (Evans et al., 2000. Nucl. Acids. Res. 28:1059). A series of random mutations was introduced into the polymerase gene and variants were identified that had improved incorporation of ddNTPs. The A486Y mutation improved the ratio of ddNTP/dNTP in sequencing ladders by 150-fold compared to wild type. However, mutation of Y410 to A or F produced a variant that resulted in an inferior sequencing ladder compared to the wild type enzyme. For further information reference is made to International Publication No. WO 01/38546.    2) A485L variant of 9° N DNA polymerase (Gardner and Jack, 2002. Nucl. Acids Res. 30:605). This study demonstrated that the mutation of Alanine to Leucine at amino acid 485 enhanced the incorporation of nucleotide analogues that lack a 3′ sugar hydroxyl moiety (acyNTPs and dideoxyNTPs).    3) A485T variant of Tsp JDF-3 DNA polymerase (Arezi et al., 2002. J. Mol. Biol. 322:719). In this paper, random mutations were introduced into the JDF-3 polymerase from which variants were identified that had enhanced incorporation of ddNTPs. Individually, two mutations, A485T and P410L, improved ddNTP uptake compared to the wild type enzyme. In combination, these mutations had an additive effect and improved ddNTP incorporation by 250-fold. This paper demonstrates that the simultaneous mutation of two regions of a DNA polymerase can have additive affects on nucleotide analogue incorporation. In addition, this report demonstrates that P410, which lies adjacent to Y409 described above, also plays a role in the discrimination of nucleotide sugar analogues.    4) WO 01/23411 describes the use of the A488L variant of Vent in the incorporation of dideoxynucleotides and acyclonucleotides into DNA. The application also covers methods of sequencing that employ these nucleotide analogues and variants of 9° N DNA polymerase that are mutated at residue 485.
Sagner et al. (1991 Rapid filter assay for the detection of DNA polymerase activity: direct identification of the gene for the DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus. Gene 97:119) discloses a method for identifying novel DNA polymerases.
As is clear from the above discussion, polymerases have been modified to incorporate nucleotides lacking the hydroxyl group at the 3′ carbon of the ribose or deoxyribose sugar moiety. However, the inventors have now surprisingly found that incorporation of a modified nucleotide having a 3′ substituent which is larger that the natural 3′ hydroxyl group can be achieved by modified DNA polymerases.